Kiki Smith: The Moon Watches the Earth
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Rachel Rampleman’s “Life Is Drag”: An Epic Queer Archive at SoMad
Rachel Rampleman has been documenting drag performers for 6 years. With over a thousand hours of footage of interviews and performances, she has compiled the largest archive of American drag in the world. At SoMad, a queer and femme-led contemporary art space in Manhattan, Rampleman unveils their latest iteration of Life Is Drag. In a dark room, glowing monitors with monumental portraits of drag artists shimmer, shout, and whisper. Ultra high definition acts of defiance and glamour brighten the walls in this installation, running through December 18, 2025.
Continue reading “Rachel Rampleman’s “Life Is Drag”: An Epic Queer Archive at SoMad”Jacqueline Shatz – Overcoming Gravity
Photo courtesy of Michael Zansky
Jacqueline Shatz‘s ceramic based wall sculptures depict biomorphic forms, mostly referring to animals and humans as a single entity. An abstracted silhouette of an agile swimmer, a whimsical hybrid of horse and baby snake, a queen’s bent head fully covered by flowing hair spilling downward – each evokes a mystery associated with ancient civilizations, archetypes, and mythologies or what the artist describes as “states of being and permeable nature of time.” Jacqueline Shatz shares with Art Spiel some thoughts on her work and work process.
Continue reading “Jacqueline Shatz – Overcoming Gravity”Meg Atkinson – Painting as a Leap of Faith
Meg Atkinson‘s paintings resemble puzzles open to multiple solutions. Her imagery is embedded with associative literary and visual layers, as clues to an open-ended riddle. Meg Atkinson shares with Art Spiel what brought her to art, as well as the way she has developed her approach to mark-making, space, gird, and color.
Continue reading “Meg Atkinson – Painting as a Leap of Faith”Artists on Coping: John Mitchell
During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.
John Mitchell at work on “Twinkle”, oil on linen, 37×80”. Photo by Twinkle Ghangas, Tuesday, January 14, 2020.
John Mitchell, born 1971 in Southern Illinois, is an American artist. As a draftsman, printmaker, and painter, Mitchell works from direct observation of people, places, and things. He was educated at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University. Mitchell lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Continue reading “Artists on Coping: John Mitchell”Artists on Coping: Barbara Laube
During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.
Works in progress on the good studio wall
To Barbara Laube the act of painting is spiritual, shamanistic, healing, and transformative. Truth is found through process and the materiality of paint. Rooted in the history of abstraction, her subject matter may not be obvious and is always left open to interpretation. It emerges from the endless mark making and adjustments to the painting surface. Imagery is often revealed that reflects her relationship to the outside world and her life, and to her deep love of great painting, particularly the early Renaissance. She exploits the play between the open and dense, and the light and dark. In the end the act of painting and paint itself is first and foremost and has always been her way of making sense of her life, loves and beliefs. Ms. Laube lives and works in Riverdale, New York. She has shown extensively in New York, including M. David & Co., Zurcher Gallery, The Painting Center, Carter Burden Gallery, Bowery Gallery, and Sideshow Gallery. She has also shown at Kent State University in Ohio, and in New Mexico, Illinois, Washington, California, New Jersey, and Texas.
Continue reading “Artists on Coping: Barbara Laube”Artists on Coping: Seren Morey
During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.
Seren Morey and her Ridgeback/Boxer Chloe in front of her latest painting Ingress
Seren Morey makes fantastical, nature inspired sculptural painting abstractions that reference the energy force of the particles that connect all matter together. She was born in Massachusetts to a family of artists and went on to complete a BA at Bard College and an MFA at Pratt Institute. Upon graduating from Bard she became an assistant to Kiki Smith and later a professor in fine arts at Pratt Institute. Morey’s work has been exhibited in numerous shows and reviewed by Robin Pogrebin, Barry Schwabsky and Helen A. Harrison of The New York Times. She currently lives and works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and is a partner in Guerra Paint & Pigment Corp., a specialty resource store for artists.
Continue reading “Artists on Coping: Seren Morey”Artists on Coping: Suzan Shutan
During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.
FLOW, 2016, Tar paper, handmade dyed paper, industrial glue, plexi rods, steel wire, KANEKO Org, NE, photo courtesy of KANEKO
Suzan Shutan is a sculptor and installation artist who creates room sized environments and smaller hybrid objects that explore the architecture of nature and organic growth. Paper and fiber are her main materials, forming patterns through repetition. Her work represents cellular structures, pathogens and toxins. She has been in solo and group shows in Germany, France, Poland, Ukraine, Sweden, Argentina, Australia, Canada and nationally at the Aldrich Museum, KANEKO and Bank of America. Her work is in private and public collections, featured in Smithsonian and Sculpture Magazines and NY Times. ODETTA Gallery exhibits her work. She lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut.
Continue reading “Artists on Coping: Suzan Shutan”Artists on Coping: Liz Sweibel
During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping
Liz Sweibel’s work is an exploration of liminal spaces, points of contact, and unseen forces: wind, history, values, math, gravity, emotion, memory. Her drawings, sculpture, and installations are spare and abstract, using specific yet ordinary materials and gestures. She often salvages materials, sources, and forms from her older work and uses them to make sense and establish identity in the present. Her studio process is low-tech, immediate, and improvisational.
Continue reading “Artists on Coping: Liz Sweibel”Artists on Coping: Diane Englander
During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.
Gatherings I (2019), 21 x 24 x 2 inches, mixed media
With color, composition, line, texture, Diane Englander is aiming for a place between discord and tranquility, a zone with a charged harmony that energizes as it also provides refuge. Her inspiration to work on a specific piece comes from curiosity about the materials. She’s always thinking (though not necessarily in a conscious way), What would happen if I did this? What would this other thing do? But always bending back to the goal of creating a place of calm energized by tension.
Continue reading “Artists on Coping: Diane Englander”